Modern media and the state of journalism today is, well…interesting. With fake news, misinformation, and clickbait – combined with more news outlets folding or being snapped up by private equity companies – it’s a bit of a minefield. So I reached out to my friend Dr. Gina Baleria to help us make sense of it all.
Today, Gina and I talk about the state of the journalism industry. We discuss that in addition to knowing how to write, research, and interview, journalists need intangible skills such as empathy, curiosity, community engagement, and tenacity to ensure all voices are included and authentically conveyed. We discuss how journalists balance empathy and connection with their task at hand. Gina also shares how we, as consumers, can reduce our draw to misinformation, why media plays to our emotions, and offers strategies to help us build media literacy so we consume it in a more thoughtful way to engage and see each other’s humanity, rather than disconnect.
To access this episode transcript, please scroll down below.
Key Takeaways:
- Social media allows for more voices to be heard that may not previously have had a platform. This is a double-edged sword.
- Journalists can put the information out into the world, but they do not have control over how consumers choose to engage with that content.
- Have external cues to stop yourself from Doom Scrolling on social media. The more “suggested for you” content you look at, the more you will be shown.
- Give yourself pause to do a little bit of research before you share inflammatory news articles or posts. You have the option to be discerning about what you choose to consume and share.
“As people are less aware of what’s going on in their local community, and only see national news, studies show that lack leads to more polarization, which leads to less civic engagement, which leads to a whole host of issues.” — Dr. Gina Baleria
About Dr. Gina Baleria:
Dr. Gina Baleria, Ed.D., is an assistant professor of digital media, media writing, podcasting, and journalism at Sonoma State University and a former broadcast and digital journalist. Her book, The Journalism Behind Journalism explores how to cultivate intangible journalistic skills, such as curiosity, empathy, tenacity, recognizing implicit biases, and writing inclusively. Gina also produces and hosts the podcast News in Context. Prior to teaching, Gina was an award-winning broadcast & digital journalist at stations including KCBS Radio, KGO TV, & KGO Radio in San Francisco; KXTV & KFBK in Sacramento; and KCAL in Los Angeles. She also helped create and manage a digital newsroom at the nonpartisan nonprofit governance organization, California Forward. Outside of work, Gina enjoys hiking, reading, and spending time with friends and family. She and her husband live in San Francisco.
Connect with Gina Baleria:
Book: The Journalism Behind Journalism: Going Beyond the Basics to Train Effective Journalists in a Shifting Landscape (Routledge 2021) Also available on Amazon.
Her podcast: News in Context – http://newsincontext.net/
Sonoma State University: https://coms.sonoma.edu/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ginabaleria/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/newsdawg13
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/newsincontext/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/newsincontextsf
Episode References:
- The Dart Center: https://dartcenter.org/
- Civity: https://civity.org/
- Edwin Rutsch: How Empathy Circles Can Change the World
- Mónica Guzmán: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Divided Political Times
Don’t forget to download your free guide! Discover The 5 Business Benefits of Empathy: http://red-slice.com/business-benefits-empathy
Connect with Maria:
Get the podcast and book: TheEmpathyEdge.com
Learn more about Maria and her work: Red-Slice.com
Hire Maria to speak at your next event: Red-Slice.com/Speaker-Maria-Ross
Take my LinkedIn Learning Course! Leading with Empathy
LinkedIn: Maria Ross
Instagram: @redslicemaria
Twitter: @redslice
Facebook: Red Slice
FULL TRANSCRIPT BELOW:
Welcome to the empathy edge podcast the show that proves why cash flow, creativity and compassion are not mutually exclusive. I’m your host Maria Ross. I’m a speaker, author, mom, facilitator and empathy advocate. And here you’ll meet trailblazing leaders and executives, authors and experts who embrace empathy to achieve radical success. We discuss all facets of empathy from trends and research to the future of work to how to heal societal divisions and collaborate more effectively. Our goal is to redefine success and prove that empathy isn’t just good for society, it’s great for business.
Modern media and the state of journalism today is well interesting. With fake news, misinformation and clickbait, combined with more news outlets folding or being snapped up by private equity companies. It’s a bit of a minefield, so I reached out to my friend, Dr. Gina Valeria to help us make sense of it all. Gina is an award winning former broadcast and digital journalist, Assistant Professor of Journalism Media Writing radio and podcasting and digital media, and the host and producer of the news in context podcast. She’s the author of the journalism behind journalism, going beyond the basics to train effective journalists in a shifting landscape. And she co authored writing and reporting news for the 21st century. Her research and creative interests revolve around news and digital media literacy, podcasting and digital engagement and communication across socially salient differences. And Gina helped create manage a digital newsroom at the nonpartisan nonprofit governance organization, California Forward. Today, Gina and I talk about the state of the journalism industry. We discussed that in addition to knowing how to write research and interview, today’s journalists need intangible skills such as empathy, curiosity, community engagement, and tenacity to ensure all voices are included and authentically conveyed.
Maria Ross 01:43
We discuss how journalists balance empathy and connection with their task at hand. And Gina shares how we as consumers can reduce our draw to misinformation, why media plays to our emotions, and she offers strategies to help us build media literacy. So we consume it in a more thoughtful way to engage and see each other’s humanity rather than disconnect. This was such a thought provoking talk, and I hope you enjoy it.
Maria Ross 02:21
I’m so excited to welcome my friend and journalism experts Gina Valeria to the podcast today. Welcome Gina.
Dr. Gina Baleria 02:28
Oh, I’m so excited.
Maria Ross 02:30
So I do have to tell listeners how we know each other because we’ve known each other for years. And we met when we did an independent theater production together. The women of Manhattan and it was amazing. And we’ve been in touch ever since. And I’ve just watched your career and your your accomplishments just grow and grow and grow over the years. And I love that you are helping to teach the next generation of journalists, I know this is something you feel really passionate about. Let’s talk a little bit about the state of journalism today. And what is our disconnect to what’s happening?
Dr. Gina Baleria 03:11
When you say disconnect, you mean the fact that there’s all this reality going on? And then there’s this ecosystem that doesn’t seem to match? Absolutely. Yeah, I mean, it’s it’s such a big issue. I don’t think there’s one thing but I, I, you know, if you’re talking about journalism, the industry and the information, first of all, social media, everybody has access, and everybody can say anything they want. And if you make it look a certain way, if you say the right things, use the right buzzwords, people will start to trust you and follow you and you can be led into rabbit holes and, and social media is you have your own reality there. And in a way that can be great because voices that weren’t able to break into traditional legacy forms of media can now make their voices heard. So that’s really amazing. But there’s always a flip side. And the flip side is people can again, create their own ecosystems. And we then start to live in different realities with different information, and very disconnected from each other inside social media bubbles and filter bubbles. So social media, and the way it sort of structured and, you know, the algorithms push us, the algorithms on a lot of social media platforms are designed to push us into these filter bubbles, and not to connect us across differences. And then with regard to the journalism industry itself, there has been, you know, a real contraction over the past several years. And that has been accelerated by hedge funds buying up local news outlets, not because they care about journalism, but because those local news outlets own real estate, and you can sell that for a profit and then sort of siphon the money out of the community rather than reinvesting in journalism. So these newspapers have just been doing more and more with fewer and fewer resources. And they’ve had you know, fewer reporters and other staff to come hover, there are local communities that the pages are then filled with syndicated content and advertising content. And as people are less aware of what’s going on in their local community, and only seeing national news, there are studies that show that lack that leads to more polarization that leads to less civic engagement that leads to a whole host of issues. So we’re in this place now where we’re really kind of fractured, and we can see it in, in our news, and it’s, um, I’m not quite sure how to solve it. But I am trying to be part of that conversation.
Maria Ross 05:32
You are trying your small but mighty attempts to to change that. Do you think the quality of reporters and journalists have changed?
Dr. Gina Baleria 05:41
You know, honestly, I don’t. I’m not sure I can answer that. I’m not sure. I’m the one to really answer that. But here’s what I’ll say. I think it’s always been true that you’ve had a spectrum of people doing amazing journalism doing mediocre journalism did bad journalism. But not everyone had the largest megaphone. You know, even back when Edward R. Murrow was doing his amazing journalism, you know, he was a standout right. Even back when the muckrakers the investigative journalists of the late 19th and early 20th century, were coming on the scene and creating policy change, you know, like instigating policy change. You also had yellow journalism in the late 19th century, which was tablet journalism. So I don’t necessarily think the quality has changed. In fact, I think that people who do journalism are very dedicated to it. But I think it just becomes difficult to do everything you want to do with your resources. And then of course, you have people who are in journalism, or who say they’re doing journalism and are right
Maria Ross 06:35
doing I was gonna say the people that say they’re journalists, but they’re actually not they’re opining, they’re not sort of following I don’t want to say the rules of journalism, but it is a it is a practice, it is a profession. And it, it just feels like and I don’t know, maybe this is my Gen X showing that this this integrity, that I felt like was more present in journalism in terms of, you know, verifying your sources and, you know, not revealing everything until you had all the facts. And just, I don’t know, I fit just feels like those of us that are not in journalism, it feels like that slipped a little bit. And I would love some reassurance, although I don’t know that you’re the one that can give me the reassurance. That’s not the case. I think we see these, these highlights of people that are still trying to you know, they’re still the people we can trust. They’re still going to be unbiased. I mean, Judy Woodruff comes to mind for me, in terms of listening to NPR and, and PBS. But, you know, as you said, a lot of these news outlets are beholden to different people than they were before.
Dr. Gina Baleria 07:46
Right? And I think yeah, and I do think those standouts are there for me, it’s Rachel Martin on NPR. Oh, yes. She’s my favorite interviewer. I think she’s amazing. There are and there are a lot of standout journalists. And I’m so I’m not sure if the quality has slipped, per se. I mean, you can argue that, I think it just there are more voices, there are fewer resources, good journalists can’t do everything they want to do, they got to move on. And then maybe there’s even an aspect of training or an aspect of maybe not really knowing you want to be a journalist, you get out there in the world, and you don’t really have the tools to do journalism. Well, and I always say, you know, it is a practice, you’re doing journalism. So you know, for me, that means applying a process of verification, a plot, a process of transparency, a process of, of skepticism, etc, to to your news gathering and a process of trying to get aside your bias or your own your own biases, to make sure that you are really seeing what’s out there and not missing it, because you have blind spots. And we all have blind spots. Let’s be clear, that’s not a it’s not a negative word. I know that it bias has been sort of CO opted as a negative thing. But it’s an evolutionary trait.
Maria Ross 08:53
It’s human. And also, you’re always going to have your own human perspective, when you investigate a story. When you report a story, the people you choose to interview. And so that is that is the one the one positive one of the positives around the proliferation of media is like you said at the beginning, there’s voices we haven’t heard before. And perspectives we haven’t heard before, that now have a platform where we can hear stories that we never would have heard with traditional, you know, white male journalists that used to dominate the field. So I’m very heartened by that. Now, your book, the journalism behind journalism, going beyond the basics to train effective journalists in a shifting landscape. Thank you for writing that book. You also co authored a book called writing and reporting news for the 21st century. And so I want to talk a little bit about modern journalism and the modern, not so much the media landscape but modern journalism and the skills that are required by modern journalists to To continue to report stories that matter stories that are unbiased stories that inform and enlighten and engage us, you talked in, in your book about the fact of relating some intangibles to the practice of journalism, like Curiosity, empathy, implicit bias in order to get solid journalism. So can you talk to us a little bit about that, and especially the idea of centering communities impacted by a story, absolutely journalism, to ensure that we’re getting fair and accurate reporting?
Dr. Gina Baleria 10:34
Absolutely. So the basics of journalism, you know, how to write well how to interview, how to do, how to do research, how to use all of those, those are being taught across journalism, schools, and those are important, those remain important, this remain foundational. But the reason I wrote the book was because I started thinking about all of these things, there are these other skills, that I sort of noticed that my students weren’t they weren’t being cultivated in my students, other skills were being cultivated. And that, you know, I think different generations, different skills are cultivated in older generations, like, oh, they don’t know, but I don’t think that’s it at all, I think, you know, they have a different set of skills that are going to be very quite valuable. But I, I started seeing a need to maybe be intentional about teaching some of these skills like curiosity, and empathy and tenacity, and recognizing your own unconscious biases, and intentionally thinking about communities outside your own and who’s impacted by the who should be centered in this story. So, um, so yeah, you know, I wrote this book. And the reason these things are important to me is, you know, to be a good journalist, you have to have empathy for the person in front of you. And it doesn’t mean, you have to agree with them. But you have to see their humanity, you have to see them as human, or you’re not gonna be able to do the story. If you walk in with it with a stereotype or a preconceived idea or an assumption, you’re missing the story, or you’re flat out gonna miss the story. I always tell my students when I’m teaching them to write, you can’t. You can’t say if someone is arrested for committing a murder, you can’t say they committed the murder, you weren’t there. You can say they were arrested. Because you know that you can say they are accused, you can say they’re on trial, you can say they’re convicted. But how many times do we then have to say they were exonerated? You know, that happens more often than not than we think. So so you can’t you can’t be the judge, jury and executioner, you have to just report what you know. And you have to, you know, look at the story and, and see you the other side to it. So a couple examples you mentioned earlier, getting outside the traditional white male voice that that is seen as neutral, which is not neutral at all. It’s its own bias perspective. And there are some journalists who’ve done some great things I want to specifically call out, there’s a book out and a movie, she said, and that’s Megan Kanter, Jodi Kantor and Megan Toohey, who are who wrote about the Harvey Weinstein, sexual assaults. And they were able and of course, there was also Ronan Farrow, who was doing his own journalism and the three of them were able to bring the story to light. And it really had a profound impact on on women being able to share their voices or call out their accusers or feel empowered and, and it it ended up putting this, you know, convicted perpetrator now Harvey Weinstein behind bars, and it was massive. And it was because, you know, I would argue, to women, were able to have the bring that perspective to the table of understanding what women go through and how serious it actually is. And to pursue that story and have a passion for pursuing that story. There were two other journalists at the Cleveland Plain Dealer several years ago, who wrote about they were they found out that Cleveland had a bunch of untested rape kits. And they were like, how many untested rape kits, and it was a lot of 1000s. And then across across Ohio was 10. Like, it was so much. And so they wrote about it, but why, why why are these untested? And and they started doing a series and because of their series, the police department started testing the rape kits, and they discovered serial rapists that if they had just tested the rape kits, they would have caught them way before they convicted, further assaults. And they talk about the that fact of you know, not you know, it wasn’t a bias. It was a perspective, I am a woman, this is important, this matters. And we’re going to cover this story. And I’m not saying a male wouldn’t cover that story. I’m saying I’m not sure that there would have been the devotion to another stories might come up or, or the awareness that that story needed to be covered. So you know, so bringing your perspective to the table can give us a lot of and that same with Trayvon Martin, the Trayvon Martin killing. In Florida several years ago, there was a black journalist who just the story was kind of a blip, and that he thought his name escapes me right now, but he thought Hmm, that’s you was odd that somebody doesn’t seem right about that. So he started doing his own digging, and because of that journalist, who, again, again, brought his experiences to the table, we got good journalism. And we were able to really get into a story we needed to get into that was, well,
Maria Ross 15:16
we were able to find out the truth, if you want to find out the one committed to pursuing the story to the end. Exactly. And so my question, and I know a lot of people have this question. Yeah, I remember, especially when people were reporting at the beginning of the the war in Ukraine, the invasion? Yeah. And they were covering, you know, they were filming these children trying to cross the border into Poland. And people were wondering, well, why doesn’t the person filming or the person reporting? Get involved? And so can you talk to us a little bit, you know, as lay people who are not in journalism, what’s what’s the, what’s the rule? What’s the principle around how involved a reporter can get in a story before then they are, they are part of the story, which is what you don’t want.
Dr. Gina Baleria 16:03
Right? Um, I think if you see someone, I think it’s up to the individual journalist, I mean, you’re there to do a job because your job is bringing this issue to light for the massive audience. Right. And without you there, this story doesn’t get out into the world. So if I put my camera down, to go help the night? Sure, maybe I helped that one person, but maybe a bunch of other people, then suffer. I’m not saying I wouldn’t help I have no idea what I would do. I am because there are there are plenty of examples of journalists who are engaged in the practice of journalism who see something and then just can’t and stop and go home. Right,
Maria Ross 16:44
right. Empathy is too is too much, you know? And so I’m just wondering what role that that personal empathy plays for Reporter Is it a is it for for reporters who are very empathetic by nature? Is it really hard for them?
Dr. Gina Baleria 17:01
I think most reporters alive I don’t know if I speak it. But I think empathy is a trait, I would say. There are a lot of reporters and myself included, after 911, who went through PTSD, who, you know, but we don’t get the we’re first responders in a lot of ways. And we, you know, fire police paramedics they have, they have structures and systems in place to deal with trauma. And journalists just don’t there’s a center called the Dart center, that actually focuses on trauma in journalism, and helping journalists manage that. But you hear about journalists getting burnout. And sometimes it’s that trauma, it’s that PTSD. But if you tell a story well and do good and get the truth out and make a difference that can mitigate the impact somewhat. But it’s someone who sits there and holds the camera and films it and doesn’t go help. That person’s not unsympathetic that person is just as affected is probably going to experience PTSD.
Maria Ross 18:04
But they’re,
Dr. Gina Baleria 18:05
you know, they made a decision. And in that moment, which you have to make these split second decisions all the time, what’s going to do the greatest good, it’s always weighing right? It’s right, it’s weighing it. If I do this, that’s going to be good. But if I do this, that’s going to be do more good. Right? Yeah.
Maria Ross 18:22
Right. You’re making those hard choices. Yeah. And so when you you know, in your book, and when you teach your students, what do you teach them around developing empathy, because I know you believe that empathy is an important skill to to be a solid journalist. So how do you talk to them around balancing that? Oh,
Dr. Gina Baleria 18:38
yeah, I mean, I talked to them about self care, I have a chapter in my book on self care. And I talked to them about putting structures and systems in place to manage, because trauma will happen, you will cover hard things, you will cover things that you’re never going to unsee and, and you know, for me, it was worth it. It’s to the mission of getting the truth out informing the public so that they had the information to be able to make decisions, it was worth it. Totally worth it. But you have to manage that. And you talk about personal empathy. And so the way I would define empathy is that it’s, it’s just seeing the humanity in another again, it doesn’t mean you’re agreeing, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t mean you’re because because there’s that sort of, over empathizing, and, and getting too personally involved.
Maria Ross 19:25
You can’t you have to have boundaries. If you if you are going to be effectively empathetic with someone, you still have to protect yourself and you can, you can understand someone you can connect with them on an emotional level. But I often talk about the myths of empathy, which is that it doesn’t it’s not being nice, it’s not agreeing with somebody. And it’s not just doing what somebody else wants you to do. That’s not empathy either, but it’s being able to see a situation through someone else’s eyes. And and if you can act with compassion, and turn that into action. And for it sounds to me like what you’re saying is for journalists The the act of compassion can often be making sure that story gets out there, right? Not just necessarily helping that one individual, but for the greater good. My act of compassion is to make sure the story gets reported fairly and it’s amplified.
Dr. Gina Baleria 20:16
Exactly, exactly. And also that that I am not over Yeah, that I am not getting so involved that I lose my perspective, you know that I get lost in the story. There was a situation when I used to work at a station, and I’ll keep it vague, because I am not sure how much I can give up. But I was working at a station and there was a missing child. And I think this is a misnomer. The public thinks, oh, the media are vultures. And I want to share this story. Because the reporter on that story was, he was covering the story and got connected with the family. And I will say that the reporter was of Latin, Latino descent, and the family was also and that may or may not have played a role in their connection, but they made a connection. And so the reporter was so caring about the story, the reporter, you know, ask permission, and they, they, they started to trust him, and they invited him into the home. And then when they learned that the child was dead, and that the perpetrator was a member of the family, they still let him in. Because they trusted him. And and he would call me we all would, but he would call every morning, did they find out I’m coming into work? Did they find her yet? There? You know, there’s so much empathy for this story in this family. And yet, we were still doing the story. Well, we were giving the public information, keeping them apprised. But the family really trusted this reporter. And, and so you know, expressing care centering the family and family’s needs, helping the family understand privacy versus the public interest. You know, it’s like, that’s another balance you have to make. It’s not always cut and dry. Yeah, there are privacy issues here. But is it more important for the public to know? Or is it more important to keep the privacy intact? And those are decisions you have to make but but he was able to, you know, not get permission from the family. That’s not the point. But he was able to connect, engender trust? Yeah. And build trust. So So that’s an important thing to think about is making connections with your sources not to get lost, but to tell the story with care and center. The people involved in the story.
Maria Ross 22:31
Is that hard for for young, wannabe journalists, do you think or? Well, that’s a race that
Dr. Gina Baleria 22:37
i That’s why I wrote the book, because I think it’s not hard for everybody. But I think sometimes it just doesn’t occur to people. I think in this day and age where we’re constantly on social media, where we’re always looking at our phones or doing things inside our phones, engaging with others through our phones, that when you’re actually in a real life situation. I noticed that with my students, when they’re actually in a real life situation, I have to kind of walk them step by step through and they’re Oh, okay. Yeah. But things that I would have taken for granted. Yeah. And so I think so. So this idea of I don’t think it’s hard, I just think it hasn’t been cultivated.
Maria Ross 23:07
Right. Yeah. I love that. So, you know, we can’t have a conversation about media without talking about media literacy, and how to withdraw how to reduce our draw to misinformation, right? What, you know, what can we do about it? We feel we feel so deeply and so much news is about activating our emotional triggers, these days, whether it’s clickbait, whether it’s like a shocking headline, whether it’s, you know, my favorite is the ones where it were, where news programs will average, like this thing and your house could be killing you will talk about it in three hours, right? Like, no, I need to know that now. Right. But where, where can we, as the consumers of media get better about reducing our draw to that misinformation? And I know, it’s fighting against our human, our human trait of curiosity, and being you know, being drawn to the, to the accident being drawn to the drama, right. So how can we be how can we make ourselves a little bit more media literate in order to understand what we’re seeing?
Dr. Gina Baleria 24:19
Yeah, and that’s a that’s a challenge. And I, you know, I talk with my students, I said, you can put the information out there, you cannot control how people receive it. Exactly. So as a journalist, you can be transparent, you can make sure you can defend your work, you know, someone comes at you make sure you feel really foundationally solid in what you’re doing. And you can, you know, treat people with respect as they engage with you unless they’re trolls and then past that, but aside, yeah, the problem is, not only does it do our brains feast on that stuff, the people who create that content know that and have of course, they’re playing right into it, playing right into it. Exactly. And so you’ve got this really, really sophisticate aidid ecosystem of algorithms and content that, that we have very little defense again, so it’d be nice to see some regulation sort of control some of that, but that would never do the full trick. So what can we do? As consumers? I would say, we should you engage with people who are different than us walk on the street, say hi, look up, you know, even those tiny little interactions can honestly have this profound impact. I work with an organization called City. And we, we just put a digital interaction to a Stanford study of 31,000 people who tested interventions. And we were number one or number two, and increasing social trust and reducing partisan animosity were in the top few. And and it was all about engagement was all about seeing the humanity in another. And so I know that seems that’s not necessarily a here’s what you do online, look for this look for that. But I think that is foundational,
Maria Ross 26:01
but it plays into that. Yeah. And I just want to 70 Civ it, why we’ll put all the links of these great things you’re mentioning in the show notes, but I just want to call that out.
Dr. Gina Baleria 26:10
Yeah, to somebody.org 7070 di t y.org. Right. Yeah. So yeah, I
Maria Ross 26:15
mean, it’s really about, you know, I had him on my show. And I’ve mentioned him on several episodes, there’s a gentleman named Edwin Racz, out of Berkeley, who you may be familiar with, he runs the Center for building a culture of empathy. And he has run empathy circles at the most divisive political rallies that we’ve had in the last few years. And I think the biggest thing is the goal is not to we’ve we’ve fallen into this trap, as, as we consume media, as we react to media and comment online or call into, to, you know, podcasts or radio shows where our mission is to convert. We feel like the debate has to lead to a conversion, right or persuasion. We’ve lost the ability to have the debate and understand different points of view and leave that conversation potentially, in the same camp as we were when we entered it. But understanding the context of the other person. Yeah. And I don’t know when, when that happened. All of a sudden, it was about you know, like, my comment on your article online, has to be abrasive and direct. And I because I’m trying to convince you that you’re wrong.
Dr. Gina Baleria 27:29
Yeah. Yeah, it’s all about that, rather than really trying to understand your point not agree with but understand. And I mean, I think social media is part of that. And a lot of that content is bought content, but it models for humans, how they think they should act. And so we get that really abrasive, you know, problematic content. And yeah, I think I’m thankful to have grown up in a household of loving parents who are diametrically opposed to me on a lot of issues. And so you have to you have to navigate that right? There. My right. So, you know, I’m really grateful. And I say this, I think, in my in my acknowledge, and my little dedication section in the book, but I’m really grateful for that, because they really helped me learn that I needed to understand other people’s perspectives help me defend my own, and how much common ground we actually do have, once you get past the knee jerk, you know, issues like abortion, gun control, my God, when you actually start talking, you agree on 90% of it, we do we just do. And then the stuff we disagree with, we can we can navigate that little bit, once we understand we have a lot of commonalities.
Maria Ross 28:39
i You’re making me think of a guest that I had on a while ago, Monica Guzman, who wrote a book called I never thought of it that way. And she talks she actually talks a lot about her family, and the fact that she is diametrically opposed politically with her or her own parents. Yes. And just talking about how we can have more civil conversations. And for me, this is linked with media, because I think, for better or worse media, whether it’s true journalism, or the clickbait, or the you know, I don’t even know what you call the opposite of good journalism, like the hacks out there,
Dr. Gina Baleria 29:14
that journalism talk show tabloid? Exactly all of that is information
Maria Ross 29:18
influencing how we have conversations, it’s influencing how we’re interacting with each other, and we want to think it doesn’t, but it does. Oh, it
Dr. Gina Baleria 29:26
totally does. And, and so it does come the it’s the awareness. It’s walking into a social media space or digital media space, saying I am aware that a lot of this content may be trying to influence me in some way. And I need to have strategies for dealing with it. So for example, I will when I go on to, and I don’t go much anymore, because it’s turned into a space that prioritizes trying to push content on me rather than letting me see the content I want. But when I go on to Facebook, there’s a lot of suggested content and the minute I see something that says suggested content, I’m off the feed because I’m like, I, there’s no need for me to be here, because then it just gets more and more that it just gets more and more frequent as I move through the feed. So the first one, I see, I stop scrolling. And that’s a strategy I have that I have in place. So you have to develop strategies for yourself. And you have to, you know, you get we all get into that, or a lot of people get into that mindless scrolling. Yeah, and that’s your doom scrolling. And that’s gonna take you down a rabbit hole, or even you start with this is a cute dog and look at this bunny and an hour, two hours later, you’re at the, you know, let’s blow up the world. Well, yeah, but you have to, you have to retain some sort of awareness or set a time limit for yourself and alarm, I mean, have external cues for yourself, do whatever you need to do to, to, you know, we all I don’t have the self discipline to realize an hour has passed, right? But if I have an alarm, or if I have limits on myself, that I can apply them, right, that helps me. So you know, you’re not going to fix, we’re not going to fix the algorithms. We’re not going to fix the digital media media ecosystem, we can lobby, we can make our voices heard. And we can set our own structures to manage the content. And then it’s and then the last thing is, understanding who the reputable sources are
Maria Ross 31:16
developer, I was gonna say, checking our own sources I’ve I’ve taken to doing that to where it’s like, okay, this article, this journalist, quote, unquote, whether a real journalist or not, is saying something. I’m going to actually go check that out elsewhere, and see if that’s actually legit.
Dr. Gina Baleria 31:32
Yeah, I had an old boss, who said, who used to say, don’t just do something sit there. And he said it to me because I constantly am in motion. But I loved it. Because it really applies like instant like you see something, it shocks you. Of course, it’s meant to shock you. It’s meant to draw out a motion, stop, take a breath, don’t share it. Just give yourself a second, go walk away. See if you can find it anywhere else on the internet. Is anyone else covering the stories? And he was saying this is a confirmed elsewhere? Yeah. actly. And only after you’ve done a little bit. And I know that that’s a lot of work, but then it’s felt we’re sharing if you’re not willing to sort of do the work that it’s not worth sharing?
Maria Ross 32:09
100% Yeah. 100% I love it. Well, and also, you know, thank you for your podcast news and context, which I always find very, very eye opening around exactly that putting the news and the headlines that we’re seeing in context of what’s going on in culture, what’s going on in society, what’s going on in the geopolitical space, and really helping us understand how to be more discerning as we consume different media and different media sources. So I’m gonna put a link to news and context in the show notes as well. Thank you. Gina, thank you so much for this conversation. Thank you for your insights and for your work with, you know, working with the next generation of journalists and hopefully, and keeping the integrity and the and the heart into that field. Thank you for
Dr. Gina Baleria 32:54
that. Maria. It’s been a real pleasure. I mean, you know, I adore you and I’m just so excited to be able to talk with you about this
Maria Ross 32:59
topic. And thank you everyone for listening to another great episode of the empathy edge podcast. If you like it, share it with a colleague or a friend. Don’t forget to rate and review and until next time, please remember that cash flow, creativity and compassion are not mutually exclusive. Take care and be kind
For more on how to achieve radical success through empathy, visit the empathy edge.com. There you can listen to past episodes, access show notes and free resources. Book me for a Keynote or workshop and sign up for our email list to get new episodes insights, news and events. Please follow me on Instagram at Red slice Maria. Never forget empathy is your superpower. Use it to make your work and the world a better place.
